62 
LONG-LEAVED BAY WILLOW. 
and rich green. The flowers are fragrant, produced 
after the appearance of the leaves, and the capsules in 
our plant are slightly corrugated, even when ripe and 
open, and do not shine as in the common Bay Willow. 
The leaves have the same odorous glands, and the bark 
of the branches is smooth, shining, and of a brownish- 
yellow colour. This tree is met with in mountainous 
situations, by streams, in all the northern parts of 
Europe, in Britain, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Lap- 
land, and throughout Siberia and Russia. Its branches 
are too fragile to be employed for any economical pur- 
pose, and the wood decrepitates in the fire. The leaves, 
which are fragrant from the resinous glands of their 
margin, however, furnish a yellow dye, and the abundant 
down of its seeds in some of the northern countries, is 
used with success as a substitute for cotton, mixed with 
a third part of the true material. 
According to Loudon, it is one of the most desirable 
species of the genus for planting in pleasure-grounds, on 
account of the fine display made by the blossoms, their 
abundant fragrance, the shining rich deep green of the 
leaves, and the comparatively slow growth and compact 
habit of the tree. It is also one of the latest flowering 
Willows, the blossoms seldom expanding till the be- 
ginning of June. 
Plate XVIII. 
A branch of the natural size. a. The capsule. 
